Tractor sales seem to be doing pretty well: Sanjeev Goyle, Mahindra & Mahindra

In an interview with ET Now, Sanjeev Goyle, Sr Vice President-Marketing & AppliTrac, Farm Equipment Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, speaks on tractor sales. Excerpts:

ET Now: Firstly what is your outlook for tractor sales given that monsoon seems to be the one good news that the sector is working with?

Sanjeev Goyle: Yes, you are right that the early arrival of monsoon augurs very well for not only tractor sales, but entire the rural growth. Apart from that even the estimation or the expectations for the kharif output has been very good.

This clubbed with the aspect of industry revival in some of the southern markets like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, which were actually degrowing in the last year, along with a good positive growth in the northern markets of MP, Rajasthan, UP, Punjab and Haryana. The tractor sales seem to be doing pretty well.


ET Now: Where in India are tractor sales lagging currently? Are you seeing a dip down coming in?

Sanjeev Goyle: No, it is not that we see a dip down in the tractor sales, because it is a combination of factors of rainfall, a good kharif and improvement in MSPs. For example, the paddy MSP has already gone up by Rs 65.

That will put more money into the hands of farmers. On the other hand, even the regions that were lagging last year like Andhra Pradesh or Maharashtra seem to have already started reviving and therefore the overall scenario seems to be extremely positive.


ET Now: Any inventory build up that you are seeing or is there pricing pressure that has been seen right now?

Sanjeev Goyle: We think this is delivery and retail that we are talking about. So the delivery also has been exceedingly good. For Mahindra, we have really grown very well by 19% over the last year.

ET Now: Do you have any plans at all to cut prices to boost demand from here on or is it something that you can rule out right now?

Sanjeev Goyle: We have, in fact, taken up the prices as of April by Rs 2300 odd. So no such thing is on the annual at all in the immediate future.

ET Now: Finally, has the recent hike in diesel prices had any impact on tractor sales?

Sanjeev Goyle: In our case, we were very sensitive to the farmers operating cost and hence we are the most fuel efficient tractors. As a result, the absolute increase in diesel price and the current month on month price increases do not augur well for customer sentiment as well as for the organisation.